(15-04-2013 01:20 AM)amyb Wrote: Yeah, that really sucks. And it happens all the time, and that's scary.

I know what you mean about being dismissed for skepticism more than anything, though. People seem to think people are skeptical for the sole purpose of being an asshole or upsetting people, they don't grasp that it's more to do with making sure there is a good reason to believe a claim. I get it all the time with people into all sorts of supernatural stuff, ghosts, psychic crap,talking to dead people etc. I'm not trying to be a buzzkill, I'm trying to not be gullible.

The problem with people is that, at their core, they're simple. The word "sheep" is grossly overused, but it really is true. People want things that they learn or "know" to be true so that there's no cognitive upset. They want things to go smoothly. They want to think that what they think is true, because it scares them that maybe they think something that's wrong; or they don't know the truth of a given situation.

When someone brings in a skeptical point of view, it scares people, because it presents the possibility that they're wrong. It presents the possibility that they're missing something. They feel intellectually vulnerable, so they get angry at people who "rock the boat", so to speak.